Reading of a Poemby Currently IncarceratedArtist Raieveon Woodenwith JASON GEORGE

Friday, April 12 | 6:30PMGlorya Kaufman Hall | UCLA

It all started when…

Jason George is an established film and television actor with over nine series regular television roles to his credit in primetime television and fifty guest-starring roles. George graduated from the University of Virginia in 1994 with a double major in Rhetoric and Communication Studies and Drama. He landed his first major role on Aaron Spelling’s NBC daytime drama “Sunset Beach.”

George can currently be seen co-starring in Shonda Rhimes’ ABC drama series “Station 19,” after having been on “Grey’s Anatomy” for several seasons as Dr. Ben Warren, an anesthesiologist and husband to Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson). George’s character is the through-line between the two series as a rookie of Seattle’s Station 19 who traded his scalpel for a fresh start as a firefighter but has had a hard time realizing that emergencies in the field are vastly different than those at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. While it’s a shock becoming the newbie again, he’s learning from the best and is up to the challenge. “Station 19” is currently airing its second and “Grey’s Anatomy” is in its 15th season.

Other television and film credits of George’s include his fan favorite series regular role on ABC’s drama series “Mistresses” alongside Alyssa Milano, “Eve” and “Eli Stone” with Victor Garber and Jonny Lee Miller, “Playing the Field” with Gerard Butler, “With This Rising” with Jill Scott, Eve and Regina Hall, “Witches of East End,” “The Climb,” and “Barbershop” with Anthony Anderson and Ice Cube.

A classically trained theater actor, George’s most recent stage work had him starring in the well-received but controversial production of “12 Angry Men” at the Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theatre of California. The play, with its half-white, half-black cast, won the NAACP Theater Award for Best Production and Jason had the honor of playing Juror #8, the role made famous by Henry Fonda and Jack Lemon in the film versions. In a prior stage outing, George played the lead in U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Rita Dove’s epic drama, “The Darker Face of the Earth.” The play relocates Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” to the plantation south in 1820 and received high critical acclaim.

When not on stage or in front of the camera, George’s passion turns to advocacy, education and engagement. As the chair of the Diversity Advisory Committee for SAG-AFTRA, Jason regularly speaks about inclusion as well as the status and need for diversity in media. He also serves on the Creative Council of Everytown, the leading grassroots anti-gun violence organization, and has done work with St. Baldrick’s, a leading childhood cancer charity. George has been Chair or Co-Chair of the legacy unions’ National or Hollywood EEO Committees and has been part of the unions’ negotiating teams for the last several prime-time television and film contracts where he has been instrumental in helping protect performers and championing diversity. George has also served on the host committee for a fundraising event for Death Penalty Focus and has spoken at the Youth Studies Center, a juvenile detention center in Philadelphia. He has also spoken at the Public Counsel Law Center, the nation’s largest pro-bono law firm. George can be seen going door-to-door working with Reform LA Jails and Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter.